If you use Android and have suddenly noticed tweets made hours ago showing up at the top of your newsfeed after not checking it for a couple hours, it’s because Twitter’s “While You Were Away” feature has finally launched on Android.
The “While You Were Away” feature was added to iOS last month as a way to make Twitter a bit easier for those who might not be constantly checking it throughout the day. It curates the most popular and what it sees as being the most important tweets that appeared in your new stream since you last checked it, and displays them at the top.
There is no option to turn off this feature, at least not yet, but it is only showing up when you haven’t checked recently, so if you are rechecking constantly throughout the day, you would not see this.
Twitter has been struggling as it tries to find the right balance between power users and new users who don’t quite understand Twitter. So this change is meant to help users see what is useful and interesting, without having to constantly scroll through after not being on the social media platform for a period of time.
Twitter is also supposed to bring this feature to Desktop as well, but there hasn’t yet been any word on when that change will go live.
Update! Now rolling out on Android: a recap of top Tweets to help you keep up w/ your world. https://t.co/SxiFDZp7UQ pic.twitter.com/mM55SHW8vP
— Twitter (@twitter) February 24, 2015
Jennifer Slegg
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